The Midas Touch
| Introducing = | Appearance = | Also = | Co = | With = | Uncredited = | Uncertain = | Producer = Lionel E. Siegel and Joe L. Cramer | Writer = | Teleplay = Donald L. Gold & Lester William Berke and Peter Allan Fields | Story = Donald L. Gold & Lester William Berke | Director = Bruce Bilson | Production = 41220 | Original = November 15, 1974 | Prev = Straight On 'Til Morning | Next = The Deadly Replay | Related = }} Summary Oscar's disappearance, after being last heard from in Las Vegas, sends Steve to the desert where the government operates a gold mine. Indications are that Oscar is involved in a plot to steal the gold, and Steve's determination to learn the truth takes him to the mine to find Oscar. After a rescue attempt fails, Steve is forced to toil in the mine against his will. Meanwhile, an old friend of Oscar, Bert Carrington, an official in the Mining and Research Bureau, arrives with plans to smuggle the gold (valued at $25 million) out of the country--and he makes a tempting offer to Oscar for the use of a government plane. Steve evades his captors and races to the rescue. Deconstructed Quotes Oscar: You could have made this look a little more like a legitimate government project. MacGregor: We brought this bunch of hoodlum deadbeats here to get gold out of this mountain quickly and quietly, period. We're not paying them to try to look legitimate. ---- Connors: (having arrested Steve Austin for trespassing) Hop right in there, pretty boy; don't get your suit dirty. ---- (Steve Austin has stopped a runaway mine car using his bionic strength)) Connors: How, how did you do that? Steve: It runs in the family. Connors: (panting) Thanks... Steve: Any time, pretty boy. ---- Oscar: I can't believe it's you, Bert. You, doing this. Bert: Please do believe it, Oscar; it is me. Oscar: My God! Bert: Oscar, telephone Neville Air Base. Use that eh, "Priority One" code name of yours, 'Snow White.' Use that, and the red tape shall be parted and they will let my millions go. ---- Oscar (when Steve tries to get him to climb out of the window): (yawning) Steve, I don't think I can make it. Steve: Look Oscar, Oscar, if you could stay awake during your own escape, it sure would help things. ---- Steve: Now, Carrington told me that he'd always beaten you, ever since school, at everything. Oscar: That's true. Steve: Well, this time he lost. Oscar: So did I, pal... Trivia Storyline *Given Steve's ability to run, the series normally doesn't resort to car chases, but this episode is an exception (implying the truck was probably going greater than 66 MPH or had too much of a head start for Steve to catch up on foot). Characters *This episode introduces Julie Farrell, the second of Oscar's secretaries to be featured in the series (after Miss Drake, who appeared in three episodes of season 1), and the first to be given anything approaching a major role. Although her voice is heard in a later episode, "Act of Piracy", she never appears on screen in that episode, making this her only major appearance. *Oscar carries an "Arnturn" credit card. *Oscar Goldman follows a daily check-in procedure with his office staff that uses code words. He can even clue them in that he is "on vacation." *Oscar's code name, "Snow White", is referenced for the first time. Although later it's implied to be a code name known by few, in its first few uses, such as here, it appears to be fairly widely known. *Bert Carrington and Oscar Goldman are friends from college. Oscar is Bert's oldest friend. Carrington is the head of O.S.I.'s Mining and Research Division. *Oscar Goldman was quite the troublemaker in college. He and Bert were arrested for drunkenness and painting the college dean's office purple. Continuity *Steve is back working on his dune buggy, which he was last seen doing in "Population: Zero", and which will play a role in an upcoming episode, "The Peeping Blonde". *Evidently Oscar's standing orders, as revealed in the "Kill Oscar" trilogy, either haven't been established as yet, or Steve and Farrell are unaware of them as no reference is made to this contingency. (In retrospect, it's possible the orders were created in response to incidents such as this.) O.S.I. *Apparently, a Level 4 security clearance is a minimum requirement to work in Oscar Goldman's office. Julie Farrell's clearance was officially raised to Level 4 when she began working from Oscar. *A "611" file is top secret. Not even Oscar Goldman has unlimited access to 611 files. *In this episode, one of O.S.I.'s functions, alternative energy research, and one of its major divisions, Mining and Research, is revealed. The Lithanium Project is a study of lithanium as an alternative energy resource. Lithanium is a by-product of gold smelting. Miscellaneous *The service station Oscar visits in the teaser, and later Steve, has two outdoor slot machines. Real world *Steve is able to buy 10 gallons of gas for 70 cents/gallon. *Farley Granger played Phillip Morgan in the Alfred Hitchcock directed movie Rope (1948). There may be a veiled reference to Rope when Bert Carrington tells Steve the he believes Oscar's plan was to discover the scoundrel in the Lithanium project by giving the perpetrator "enough rope." *Steve use the familiar catchphrase "Keep On Truckin'." In 1974, this phrase had only been in existence for six years after Robert Crumb first published the cartoon in issue 1 of Zap Comix in 1968. Gaffes Continuity *When the henchman shoots out the left front tire of Steve's car, the wheel cover comes off. In the next shot, the cover is still on as the car swerves and then stops. Plus, the tire isn't flat. Credibility *The "day for night" shooting procedure, which was commonplace in TV productions of the time, is more obvious than usual during Steve's rescue of Oscar, where it's supposed to be late at night yet bright blue sky is clearly visible in the background. *There is no real reason why Steve should need to bend back the bars and enter the building where Oscar is being held captive via the window, unless the shack didn't have a door. Likewise they could have exited via a door. (Unless the door was too exposed either way, a fact not really made clear here). *Steve's stunt double is seen full-face several times during the car chase, as well as in several shots where Steve drives back to the compound. *In the desert, Eric is going to kill Steve, but he free himself breaking his handcuffs, simply pulling with his arms. It would be possible only if Steve had both bionic arms. *In the mine, Steve shovels faster than Connors and does not get exhausted. The major muscle group used would be his back and core muscles, which are not bionic. *When Steve jumps off the building by the old car (just before getting in the jeep), it starts off as a long shot showing him jump, and then as a close shot of him hitting the ground. Take a look at the old car in the background as Steve hits the ground - it is bouncing up because Lee Majors used the car to jump off of as part of the effect. Gallery Image:Midas-julieferrell.jpg|Julie Farrell. Image:Midas-mineshaft.jpg|Steve saves his captor. Image:Midas-carrington.jpg|Bert Carrington. Image:Midas-steverun.jpg|Steve runs to catch a plane. Image:Th-The.Six.Million.Dollar.Man.S02E07.DVDrip.XviD-SAiNTS.jpg|Episode collage. 207